Why don't doctors police profession?

Does any other group or profession have the protections afforded doctors? No. Is any other group clamoring for reform? No.

As I said in my prior response (letter, Jan. 31) to Dr. Volpintesta's distortion of the situation, the vast majority of all doctors do what is right and fair for their patients.

Studies show that it is a very small minority of doctors that are committing malpractice.

There are millions of medical procedures that are done correctly and safely. Only a very small number of procedures are done incorrectly and, of those, a much smaller number of them result in lawsuits.

What's wrong with our health-care system? The doctors' refusal to police themselves. Why do 94 percent of physicians who practice safe medicine want to protect a small group of those who don't?

Furthermore, why doesn't Dr. Volpintesta ever quote any facts when he writes his diatribes against lawyers?

I have read all his letters and have yet to see him say anything other than he and his brethren need protection from lawyers.

He quotes no studies. He quotes no statistics. Why doesn't he quote the CEO of CMIC, the largest insurer of doctors in the state, who says that caps on awards would reduce the increase in rates by 15 percent, but they would still go up 55 percent.

Why doesn't he quote the statistics that the number of doctors are actually increasing in our state, rather than decreasing as the doctors' lobby would have you believe?

He doesn't do that because he can't scare you that way. Fear is the only ally that the doctors have.